Beehive Stand addition ( what do you think )

[Acebird]

I will be picking up two single boxes of bees next week. Each box has 10 frames of bees... This way I start off with 2 hives .

Will each box of bees have a queen?  This is not clear to me.

[djgriggs]

I will be picking up two single boxes of bees next week. Each box has 10 frames of bees... This way I start off with 2 hives .

Will each box of bees have a queen?  This is not clear to me.

Yes


However I am told that she may be marked or unmarked

[beepro]

After last season I found out that I didn't need a beehive stand addition to hold the frames.  Last summer an expensive
Cordovan mite resistant breeder queen died because I did not use another bee box to hold her during an inspection resting the frame of bees outside of
her hive.  Somehow this queen had crawled outside of her frame of bees and on the ground.   I went back to the house on a short
notice and came back to the hive for further hive inspection.  Not know the queen was on the ground I step on her.   When I finally realized that the queen was
missing from the frame I found her on the ground with eggs that squished out of her abdomen.    My poor dead breeder queen!
After this lesson I will never use a frame rest or anything outside of the hive without an enclosure.  When you have active queen in the laying season she
tends to wander off the frame to explore her outside environment a bit ending up on the grass or the ground.   So now I use another nuc box to isolate the
bee frame with the queen in it.  It is safe inspection from now on.  Crushing a few workers is better than crushing an expensive queen.  Learn my lesson the hard way last season.

[Acebird]

Yes

So you are getting two hives and you want to know what is the best way to add a box to each?  That can't be answered until you get the hives and find out the details.  Or the person you are getting the hives from tells you what to do.  Only the supplier knows the history on these hives.  It would be foolish not to ask him/her questions.

[little john]

I use a pair of frame stands which are placed on top of an adjacent hive.  One to hold the first frame out, the second in case I want to hold a queen-rearing frame, or a comb containing naturally-drawn queen-cells, or if the comb requires some work doing to it - in all cases in order that I can work on that frame at a convenient working height.  You can't do that if the subject frame is inside a box.  Have never trodden on a queen yet ...
LJ

[djgriggs]

I use a pair of frame stands which are placed on top of an adjacent hive.  One to hold the first frame out, the second in case I want to hold a queen-rearing frame, or a comb containing naturally-drawn queen-cells, or if the comb requires some work doing to it - in all cases in order that I can work on that frame at a convenient working height.  You can't do that if the subject frame is inside a box.  Have never trodden on a queen yet ...
LJ

my thought is to make a little table top out of the center of the stand between the two hives which would give me a place to place the boxes when I do my inspections.

[Acebird]

my thought is to make a little table top out of the center of the stand between the two hives which would give me a place to place the boxes when I do my inspections.

I think you will find that the boxes will not be accessible when you try to inspect.  If you put the boxes on the outside of the hive then the hive is not accessible.  Everything is accessible if you put them on top of the hive next to the hive you are working.  So then the issue becomes if things get too high.  That is when you want to provide space behind your hives when you plant your hive stands.  The next best place to put hive parts is behind the hive.

[djgriggs]

my thought is to make a little table top out of the center of the stand between the two hives which would give me a place to place the boxes when I do my inspections.

I think you will find that the boxes will not be accessible when you try to inspect.  If you put the boxes on the outside of the hive then the hive is not accessible.  Everything is accessible if you put them on top of the hive next to the hive you are working.  So then the issue becomes if things get too high.  That is when you want to provide space behind your hives when you plant your hive stands.  The next best place to put hive parts is behind the hive.

This is a very good point; I think that in this case it might be better to work from the back of the hives instead of the sides.. This would give me the room to move around while allow for plenty of space for the boxes.

[cao]

I've got a small metal table that I use once the hives get large enoung that I'm pulling boxes off to inspect.  It is the right height the I can stack two boxes without much bending.  I keep it behind the hive I'm working with enough space for me to move around.  Then I just drag it down the line as I go from hive to hive.  With a table, It frees up both sides and back of the hive that you are working.

[Acebird]

Sure;, table, wheel barrow, wheeled cart anything to make it easier and comfortable.

[little john]

The idea of some kind of wheeled cart is (imo) an extremely good idea if a person has more than just a couple of hives.  It could consist of a box containing spare feeders and jar lids (if you use inverted jars as I do), a couple of plastic milk jugs with syrup, somewhere to hold the smoker (and some extra fuel), your hive tools - and of course have some kind of frame holder - perhaps with a tray directly underneath it ?  Maybe also a box holding a few spare frames ?  And somewhere to hold scraps of wax.  And a notebook and pen. This list could get quite long ... 
Although I don't have an inspection buggy myself - I do keep planning to make one - if only to keep all the bits I use in one predictable place.  I find nothing's worse than opening-up a hive, only to find I've left something useful - like drawing pins (thumb tacks) to mark a frame with q/cells or something else which requires attention - inside the house.
LJ

[Acebird]

I find nothing's worse than opening-up a hive, only to find I've left something useful - like drawing pins (thumb tacks) to mark a frame with q/cells or something else which requires attention - inside the house.

I got real tired of forgetting things in the basement where my bee stuff is kept.  So I mounted a mail box to the top edge of one pallet which is a zig zag wind brake fence for the hives.  Things like hive tool, torch, entrance reducer, gloves, frame gripper all stored in the mail box. I hang the smoker on one of the side slats.  Then I cut out a plastic jug to cover the bellows from the weather.  These things stay out by the hive all year long.

[beepro]

Inspecting from the back of the hive is tiresome.   The frame that you pull out is unbalanced and just down right
awkward.  After 10 frames done on the first hive you're too exhausted to go on.  Somehow the angle that you
pull out the frame is not that comfortable.    Now I do hive inspection right by the side of the box standing side way a
bit so that incoming foragers can get inside.